


Legacies Intact

by Paris_The_Lazy_Writer



Category: Slugterra
Genre: Eli's Daughter, Gen, I wrote the original when I was like 13, Next-Gen, OML this is gonna be a ride, Oops, hope the fandom doesn't hate me for ruining the most popular ship in the fandom, my character just isnt the MC, the ultimate self-insert without self inserting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2020-03-17 17:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18969706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paris_The_Lazy_Writer/pseuds/Paris_The_Lazy_Writer
Summary: Katie Shane is anything but a Shane.As the only child of Eli Shane's not-so-perfect relationship with Trixie Sting, raised by the entire Shane Gang, life was never easy, but she made a name for herself; a name completely her own.As Kitty Shade she has everything and anything she could have ever wanted-on the other side of the world from her parents completely. She has a family, a home, and a reputation upheld with honor and honorably dirty-tricks.But a request from her father and the biggest lie of the century bring her back into the one world she wanted to leave, the world where everything is run by the Shane, and she's the only Shane left standing to run it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *A rewrite/sequel of my Wattpad and FFnet fic The Killshot (also sort of a sequel to the perpetually unfinished fic).  
> Basically I opened an old folder, found Katie Shane, and threw out the thirteen-year-old me writing.  
> I may or may not return to FFnet to finish Killshot, the likelihood is slim.
> 
> This will probably sit unfinished for a long while, but here's chapter one.

Well after last glow, the old Shane Hideout was quiet, slugs passed out in little nooks and crannies, its residents asleep in their rooms.

Except for Katie.

The youngest Shane moved quietly through the hideout, desperate to end the visit before she could be dragged into staying another day.

Unlike most home-comings, Katie’s wasn’t ideal. Her parents, Eli Shane and Trixie Sting had been home for less than an hour from a long town meeting before their eighteen-year-old daughter slammed the door open and all-but collapsed on the living room floor. That’d been four days ago after losing a fight with a new gang in town, and now Katie was anxious to get out and go home.

Her own hideout was two days ride from her parents out in Eastern Rift where she kept an eye on the caverns in her own style, and without the advertisement of her lineage.

Like most visits, this one came with a number of lectures and worried looks, as well as a number of very awkward interactions between the very dysfunctional family.

Just as she reached the door, she heard a squeak from the slug tower beside her and the light flicked on.

“Going somewhere?”

Eli stood at the top of the stairs, dressed to the nines in full combat gear with a grim look on his face. Katie had either interrupted him sneaking off to answer a distress call, or he was interrupting her to insist on escorting her home.

“Just…. To the grocery store, to pick up some milk for breakfast?” Katie winced as she spat out the worst lie she’d ever told.

“In full combat gear with your duffel bag, doesn’t look like a grocery run. Maybe hug your mother good-bye before you go?”

Katie huffed and closed the door, her slugs chirping excitedly as they hopped down to visit with Eli’s slugs once again.

“Why, so she can try to make me stay another day? I need to get home.”

Eli didn’t disagree as he walked down the stairs, instead he pulled a duffel bag from behind the couch and met Katie at the door to the garage, “I know, but it won’t kill you to say good-bye to your mother.”

“Yeah, fine.”

Eli headed to the mecha-beasts as Katie dropped her bag maneuvered the messy living room to the stairs.

Up in the bedroom wing, Eli’s door was wide open, and the room was pristine. Usually the thirty-five year old Guardian let his room get trashed with everything from maps of the caverns to pizza boxes. Katie guessed he planned on being gone for a long time.

Trixie’s room was next door; it always had been. The door was shut tight, but some light peeked out from beneath it, so Katie knocked.

Seconds later, the door swung open and Trixie gave her daughter a look. She was still in her pajamas, with her hair still a mess and what seemed like yesterday’s makeup smudged around her eyes. Between Eli’s shenanigans and Katie’s stressful upbringing, her red hair was already streaked with gray.

“Katie? It’s only six in the morning, what are you doing up?”

“Leaving mom, thought I’d say goodbye before heading out.”

Trixie huffed and walked back into her room, “leaving already? It’s only been four days since you nearly died on my living room floor, what the hell am I supposed to do with you?”

“Let me go do my job?” Katie rubbed her arm nervously. “Like I said, I’m heading out. Bye, mom.”

Trixie turned around, arms open for a hug, and Katie reluctantly stepped into the room to hug her mother.

“You should stay, just another few days, until you’re really rested, you know? Just another few days off. You need them.”

“Good-bye, mom,” Katie reiterated, not hiding the frustration in her voice anymore. She pushed her mother off and headed back for the door.

  

In the garage, the door was already wide open, and Eli had tied both his and Katie’s bags down to their mechs.

“I’ll ride with you until Bullseye, but then I’m headed south towards Splinterback,” Eli mounted his mecha-beast as Katie jumped on hers and started it.

“What’s in Splinterback?”

“Another gang of thieves stopping every caravan between the Southern Cavern and the marketplace. People are losing entire livelihoods.”

“You’re not taking mom?”

“No, but I’m meeting Kord and Pronto in Lumino.”

Katie nodded and didn’t ask any more questions.

 

The ride was mostly quiet, but surprisingly tense. Katie’s relationship with her parents had always been strained at best, but even today was weird. Eli was acting more nonchalant than usual and didn’t harp on Katie about any of her reckless driving or time-killing activities.

The pair was halfway to Bullseye before Katie finally demanded to stop and stretch while in Xanadu Basin.

“Hey dad, everything alright? You’ve been really quiet. I didn’t piss you off or anything did I?” Katie tossed him a water bottle from her bag before opening one for herself.

“What? No, no, Katie, you’re actually doing really well lately. Been meaning to tell you that I was impressed with the way you handled the cyclops takeover out in Gateway.”

Katie blinked. That had been two weeks before she showed up in the West, and while taking down a cyclops was hard enough, she’d had to do it without wrecking the town or letting The King get in the way or worse.

“Oh… thanks, yeah that sucked, but it wasn’t all bad. You sure you aren’t sick or anything. You never compliment me.”

Eli shook his head, “no kiddo, just getting used to the fact that you’re growing up,” he sat on a small mushroom and gestured at a log beside it, “fact is, you scared the ever loving shit out of your mother and I four days ago, and I had to talk her into letting you leave at all.”

Katie sat down and crossed his arms, “and you’re telling me this because…?”

“Because, I need to ask you to do something I wouldn’t ask a kid to do, but you’re the only one who can do it.”

Eli had Katie’s attention now.

Raised by the entire gang, Eli and Trixie did most of the work, but only Kord and Pronto were ever up front with her about anything. Katie had guessed it was because she was Trixie and Eli’s big “oops” and they were trying to spare her feelings, but she had watched her family fall apart long before now.

“What do you need me to do?”

Eli sighed and held out a small yellow star and a journal. The five points of the star were made up of an S and T, they stood for Slugterra, but had long been the identifying logo of the Shane family. The journal had that logo impressed into the leather cover.

“I need you to take over and be the Shane.”

Katie hesitantly took the star, “if you need me to join the gang then…”

“No,” Eli interrupted, “I need you to be the Shane. Something is stirring up in the Southern Caverns, something big and dangerous, and walking around with that sign on my chest is going to prevent me from getting in the way I need to. When I get to Splinterback, Kord and I are going to pull off a plan so big, Pronto and Trixie don’t know about it, because I need them to believe the cover story we’re building.

“I shouldn’t tell you either, but it seems a little unfair to leave you traumatized the way I was for no real reason.”

Katie studied the star, the way the yellow faded into orange at the edges, looking like a flame, a symbol of the infurnus Eli had said, the guardian slug of the caverns, so he’d kept the theme running in the logo. Her father always had the flair for the dramatic. A trait he’d passed on to Katie too.

“You’re going to fake your death.”

“Pretty much,” Eli answered, “more like a disappearance. I fall off the edge of the cliff and never return, until the Southern job is over, and then I will come back.”

“Assuming you aren’t found out,” Katie stood up, “assuming they don’t recognize your face and shoot you on the spot, or find your sabotage and punish you or worse. Did you think this through?”

Eli laughed, “aren’t I supposed to ask you that kind of question.”

“Not the time!”

Katie paced in front of the log demanding answers to questions left and right before Eli finally stood up and got her to calm down.

“Katie, this is important, I’m trusting you to keep an eye on the caverns, and to do your part to keep the family name alive. When the Slugterrans have a Shane, they have hope. All you have to do is show them that we don’t take kindly to tyrants and overlords. Kord and Pronto and your mother will all still be here to help you out, and there’s nothing stopping you from finding a few friends of your own to keep the peace.”

“Dad, do you have any idea who I am? What Kitty Spade does when she fights? People find out I’m the Shane and they’re going to ask questions. I’m not some do-gooder, I’m hardly better than the asshole competition slingers who fight for money.”

“Then forget Kitty Spade. Change up the outfit some, ditch your mask, and own your identity. You think I didn’t break laws? Hell, I once blew up an entire factory, I even broke Pronto and two other guys out of prison back when I was just a kid. Being a Shane is about doing what’s necessary to keep the peace, there are certain rules we try not to bend, but being a hero isn’t too different from being a villain, it all breaks down to motive and means.”

Katie dropped her arms, the pin and the journal dangling from each hand with the weight of charged grenades. This request from her father wasn’t just a change in technique or a day of assistance, this was a new lifestyle, a kind of death that Katie wasn’t ready for.

Growing up with four semi-absent parental figures wasn’t easy, add in the legacy of a champion and the combat training and you had a recipe for near disaster, but Katie had forced her way through it. She’d come out on the other side with thick skin, but whole. She’d built a life for herself in Eastern Rift, far away from the family who’d left her bereft from a young age. In Eastern Rift, she had friends, neighbors, a job, and a pretty decent gig as the Champion of the East, winning duels left and right and getting her money’s worth as a mercenary with morals.

This familial demand was going to change a lot of that.

All around them, slugs chirped and squeaked. Bats let out cries and the foliage rustled in the cross breeze coming off the Cavern Sea from Undertow. It was certainly a remote and private place for Eli to demand such a thing from his daughter.

“Fine,” Katie huffed, tucking the star into her pocket, “Fine dad, I’ll pick up the family legacy, but not until everyone thinks your dead.”

Eli nodded, “thank you….”

“I’m not done yet,” Katie raised her hand and shook her finger, a habit picked up from her mother, “I’ll take up the mantle of the Shane, but when you come back, you have to take it back and let me go back to my own thing, and you can’t be upset with me if I change up the routine. You said it yourself that you’re nothing like Grandpa was, so you have to let me be my own Shane, even if it means doing things that you don’t like.”

Eli opened his mouth to protest before closing it again and holding out his hand, “deal kiddo, you do things your way, and I’ll be home before you know it.”

Katie accepted her dad’s handshake, but yanked him in for a hug, “you better Dad, the world still needs you.”

The rest of their ride was quiet, but the tension was gone, replaced instead with a weariness neither Shane wanted to bear. By the time they’d made it to Bullseye to set up camp for the night, it was on the forefront of Katie’s mind.

“I’m the new Shane.”


	2. Lighting the Fire

With a quiet flick of the light switch, Katie lit up her hideout. The old army outpost from the civil wars a hundred years back wasn’t exactly new or up to date, but it was big, well stocked with some still-good defenses, and for Katie, it was home.  
While she wasn’t expecting a warm welcome after disappearing on her friends for a week, Katie was surprised to find the hideout completely empty.  
There was a note on the milk crate that served as a coffee table.  


“Katie, we didn’t know when you were getting home, but wanted to let you know that Paris got into a bit of trouble, so we’re out to handle it, should be back by Monday night, hope you’re home before we are. - the Twins and Leo.”

It certainly wasn’t the first time Paris got in over their head, but the others would be able to take care of it.  
The hideout looked like nobody had been back in days, and considering the way the gang had to leave, it was an awful mess, so Katie dropped her bag in her room and started tidying up.

Nothing in the hideout was five star by any means, but Katie straightened up the piles of maps and papers on the milk-crate-coffee-table and piled the bean bags up in the corner before putting the couch back into place and cleaning up the abandoned snacks then dumping the trash into the fireplace.  
With the living area picked up, she flopped onto the couch and turned on an old Max Jackson movie.

Katie groaned and stretched. The movie’s menu screen was playing, meaning at some point, she passed out, but with all the noise, Katie sat up to see her crew shuffling through the door arguing about… smoothies?

“If I had to ride all the way to bullseye, then into Snowdance to save your ass, you bet you’re making me a Strawberry Banana Smoothie,” Helix dropped a bag of gear on the floor and turned around as Paris walked in.

Paris looked like they’d been through hell, hair wild, dirt on their face, and one of their armor straps was broken.

“I’m not making you a fuckin’ smoothie until I get a friggin shower you dumbass. Do you want eau de dungeon and crispy dirt cakes in it?”

Katie laughed. Of course, Paris had gone to the Northern Caverns. The old castles there were full of hidden treasure and were quite an adventure for even the most experienced tomb raider.

Helix huffed and crossed his arms, “fine. Shower.”

Paris rolled their eyes and headed for the stairs as Nico and Leo walked in carrying a large wooden trunk.

“What’d you guys bring me?” Katie beamed, hopping over the couch and walking up to her crew.

“Ask Paris, they wouldn’t leave without it, and we can’t get it open. The lock is crazy weird,” Leo shrugged.

“Try breaking the chest?”

“Paris wouldn’t let us,” Nico grumbled.

Helix threw an arm around Katie, “besides, I don’t think we should reward the kind of behavior that comes with sneaking off and staying gone for nearly a week, do you?”

Katie shrugged, “I’ll fill y’all in over breakfast.”

“It’s like 4 pm,” Nico pointed out.

“Breakfast,” Katie affirmed hugging Helix back.

Leo shook his head, “yeah, we’ll all clean up, you cooking, Kat?”

“Always,” Katie grinned and headed for the kitchen.

It wasn’t the home coming she’d learned to expect from the gang, usually by now Helix would have tackled her and Nico would be tugging on her braid, so either the gang had a really bad day, or they all knew something Katie didn’t.

“Why so quiet?” Katie asked as everyone sat around the table.

Paris poked their french toast, “you haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

Paris exchanged looks with the boys, but none of them were willing to say anything, so Paris sat up and shook their head.

“Katie, your dad went off a cliff durin' a duel in Splinterback. Nobody;s seen or heard from 'em since early this mornin'. His gang confirmed it, he’s missing at best, and at worst… you're dad's gone, Katie.”

Katie set her fork down and grimaced. She had not been expecting it that soon.

“Oh.”

Nico set his glass down, “your dad is dead and all you can say is _OH _?"__

____

Katie prayed she could lie better than she had to her father, “missing right? No body yet, so he could be alive.”

Helix put his hand on hers, “denial is a step in the process, Katie, but ya know… we’re here for you.”  
Katie excused herself from the table.

She splashed water on her face so hard it dripped from her hair. The once neat braid hung in wavy locks, dripping wet.

“I was supposed to have a few days,” Katie hissed at her reflection.

Unfortunately, the girl in the mirror looked as scared and angry as she felt.

Could she tell her team the truth?  
Could she make her team change for her?  
Could she even be the Shane her dad needed her to be?

Katie was raised with values so drilled into her she was hesitant to break rules at first. Becoming Kitty Shade was a process, and while Katie hadn’t given up on the most important family values, she hadn’t necessarily kept up with most of them.

“Katie?”

The gentle knock sounded more like a battering ram, but Katie croaked a quiet, “I’ll be fine, just give me a little bit.”

“Okay. Just… you don’t have to do it alone.”

“I know,” Katie answered, “just… just give me a minute, please?”

“Alright, we’re cleaning up breakfast, do you want any saved?”

“No…” Katie answered, and after a pause, she opened the door a crack.

Helix looked scared, but he smiled gently, blue eyes still holding a little twinkle.

“Can you make some hot chocolate?”

“Just us or the whole family.”

“Whole family,” she smiled back, though it was small and brief.

Helix nodded and Katie pushed the door closed once more before grabbing her favorite face wash and scrubbing up, then drying her hair, fixing it into a loose bun.

Downstairs, everyone else was in comfortable clothes, and Nico was stoking a fire in the little fireplace he’d built while Helix distributed hot chocolate from a kettle.

“Hey guys,” Katie slid onto the couch and took a mug from Helix before he sat down and poured one for himself.

As was tradition, the whole gang was curled up, the couches pressed closer and Paris’s bean bag chair scrunched into the middle.

“Hey,” Nico passed her the fluffy blanket they usually fought over before sitting and tossing his legs over Leo’s lap. Paris leaned on Leo’s legs and smiled from within the dark confines of their hoodie, handing Katie their small stuffed slug hound.

Katie grinned and curled up with the borrowed comforts before taking a sip of the cocoa and taking a deep breath.

“So… I’m gonna tell you guys something, and you have to promise me it won’t leave this room,” Katie noted, “it’s very important that of all the things we share, this stays within the family.”

Everyone agreed and Katie put the journal in Paris’s lap then handed Helix the star, “pass those around. They’re important too.”

Paris flipped through the journal, “this is in code,” they noted, studying the sketches and the drawings, “an' the artist is terrible.”

Katie laughed, “yeah, dad always sucked at drawing, it’s the new Shane code, dad had to write a new cipher when he was fifteen. I’ll show you all how to decode it tomorrow.”

“Your dad wrote this?” Nico flipped the pages as though it were an ancient scroll.

“Yeah,” Katie answered quietly, “and… he isn’t dead. Dad and I had a talk on the ride here. He and I split up back in Bullseye yesterday. I wound up in a sticky situation, got out of it fine, but it was way faster to go to my parents than it was to come home, and while I would like to have called, I don’t fancy my folks having our home number.”

“Fair,” Helix offered, passing the star to Leo and taking the journal, “so what are these about?”

“This is where I ask more of you than I ever thought I could,” Katie sighed.  
“My dad figured out that Splinterback’s problems are way more than skin deep. There’s some major foul play all over the caverns involved, and in order to get to the root of the problem, he opted to chance things up a bit.  
“My dad faked his death in order to get to the root of the problem. It’s crazy dangerous, but he plans to infiltrate the gang down there and see what he can get done. We won’t know which guy he is if we ever go up against them.  
“That brings me to my next point. I can’t be Kitty Shade anymore.”

The looks on her team’s faces were priceless.

Paris set their mug down and fondled the star, “this is the Shane logo idn’t'it?”

Katie nodded.

“There’s only one?” Paris dug deeper into the situation, “cause if you think you’re goin' out there with this on, we’re gonna need more of these.”

Katie looked up, meeting Paris’s green gaze which was packed with a new kind of fire.

“What?”

Helix nodded, “you heard them, we need at least two more of these.”

“Three,” Leo corrected.

“Four,” Nico chimed.

Katie beamed, “you guys are positive? Because the Shane thing, it’s a lot different than the way we live now.”

Paris grinned, “then we’ll make it our thing.”

“Family sticks together,” Nico promised her.

Katie held the star and journal rubbing her fingers over the orange enamel, “and just like that, I guess we’re the Shane Gang.”


	3. The Beginning of the End

As Katie wandered down the stairs to the living room the next morning, she wondered if the last two days had been a dream, everything had happened so fast that she wasn’t sure what to think.

 

But there the journal was, complete with the badge and everything.  
To Katie’s surprise, there was some white dust on the badge, and the workshop light was on. 

 

Leo stood over her workbench, grinding away at a star shaped hunk of metal. There were two finished pieces ready for painting, and another one, unbuffed, but still nicely shaped sitting along the back wall.

 

“These look nice,” Katie smiled and picked up one of the finished one.

 

“Thanks,” Leo set her tool down and push her safety glasses up, “you’re up early?”

 

“Yeah, guess I couldn’t sleep.”

 

“Same here,” Leo leaned on the table and sighed, “made a cast of yours, been at it all night.”

 

Katie nodded and snagged Leo’s empty coffee mug, “you want a refill?”

 

“Sure,” Leo wiped sweat off her forehead and unplugged her tools, “I could use a breather.”

 

“I’ll get the coffee going again.” 

 

The morning was quiet, and if Katie was being honest with herself, tense. Leo wasn’t the most rebellious person on the planet, but it was hard to talk her into anything she didn’t want to do.

 

“You good?” Katie asked as she poured a second mug of coffee.

 

“Tired, think I’ll take a nap later, but I want to finish those badges first. The sooner they’re done the sooner I’ll stop wondering if it’s a good idea.”

 

Katie nodded.

 

This was the reaction she’d been expecting last night. A group of mercenaries wasn’t going to give up their lifestyle easily, and Katie wasn’t sure she wanted to give it up altogether, but things were going to be different, walking around under a new flag.

“Nico thinks its brilliant, I don’t know. It’s not the worst move we could make for ourselves.”

 

“What? Rebranding?”

 

“Oh, that’s gonna be a whole other problem, most people fear us, what the hell are they going to do when you toss your mask and say you’re a Shane?”

“They’re not.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Kitty’s just gonna disappear. As far as most people know I was as good as dead when I walked out of the fight in Land’s End. I’m just going to walk out the door without the mask, announce my name, and see how this goes.”

 

Leo nodded, “two fake deaths for the price of one.”

 

“Essentially.”

 

With that conversation out of the way, Leo headed back to the shop to finish the stars before the others woke up.

 

Katie made herself busy in her room laying out all of her gear and deciding what to keep and what to put away.

 

The mask had to go, as Kitty’s signature look it wasn’t going to sit well with Shane supporters, so it was the first thing to go inside the box.  
Along with it went the fancy purple knee pads and gloves, as well as the purple scarf which matched.

 

Nico had worked so long on that scarf, it seemed like a crime to pack it away, so Katie hung it on the end of her bed, for cold nights and hot chocolate meetings.

 

“You’ve been up a while,” Nico stood in the doorway, arms crossed, gear nowhere to be found.

 

“Yeah, couldn’t sleep, so I figured I would salvage what I could from the old look and figure out how much gold my dad’s special favor is gonna cost me.”

 

“From the looks of it, a lot. You’ve got what, a pair of padded pants and a shirt? The rest of it was all custom Kitty.”

 

Katie dragged her hands down her face, “I know, but what was I supposed to do? Tell him no?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Katie shot a glare at Nico, but instead of shutting up, he sat down next to her and grinned.

 

“I’m kidding. I have no idea what I’d do if my old man showed up one day and said, ‘hey, I’m gonna pretend to be dead, time to carry on your family legacy’. That’s flat out crazy.”

 

“Not helping.”

 

Katie glanced at the rest of her gear. Nico was right, even though the colors were neutral, everything was too noticeably hers. She’d have to go all out, even repaint her mech – or worse, find her dad’s.

 

“Yo, someone’s comin’ up the drive,” Paris poked their head into Katie’s room, “think it’s the cave troll, Zane.”

 

Katie couldn’t help the smile, “Uncle Kord,” she jumped up and headed for the door, Nico and Paris hot on her tail. Even with everything that’d happened, seeing her favorite uncle was enough to put a smile on his face.

 

“You’ve heard, then, the whole story?” Kord asked as Katie handed him a beer. The others were kind enough to give them the living room to talk, so as Katie sat on the couch opposite her dad’s best friend, she popped the cap off her own.

 

“Yeah, so have they. Stayed at mom’s for the last week, got a little roughed up, it was either there or a ditch, so I went.”

 

Kord nodded, “you know, you don’t have to make excuses for going to parents’ place, they’re happy to have you.”

 

Katie shook her head, “it’s not an excuse, you know why I stay away.”

 

He nodded and put a hand on his knee, “and I respect those reasons, but don’t let anyone, even yourself tell you that it’s wrong to go see your folks once in a while. Learned that the hard way.”

 

“Well now I can’t, so just… forget it. How much did he tell you?”

 

Kord shook his head, “not much. He’s playing a risky card, I told him it was ridiculous, but he insisted on doing it. There are better fits for this game than he is, but he wasn’t open to suggestions.”

 

Katie huffed, “and who would you have deemed trustworthy enough for this?”

 

“Me, Trix, Dana, there’s a lot of us. Eli hasn’t had the… right kinda heart for work like this since before Twist.”

 

Katie frowned. Her dad had never talked about his teenage rival, wouldn’t even have his name spoken in the house. It was the only rule Trixie respected.

 

“Mercenary work you mean…”

 

“Yeah, went undercover to take out a gang, Twist caught him in the act, and while Eli was trying to save the act, Twist took it too far.”

 

Katie looked up, curious as always when hearing about Twist, “what’d he do? Specifically? He wouldn’t share.”

 

Kord took a long slow sip of his drink before answering.

 

“He took you. No ransom, no blood, just a dead babysitter and a note promising that when all was said and done, the Shane name would bring fear into the hearts of the people and the caverns would never be the same. You were missing for a year, four months, and nineteen days. You’d just turned one, the most famous baby in the caverns, and nobody could find you. 

“Twist was a notorious liar, and we all though the worst, but your dad… he knew you were alright, took Twist at face value the only time it mattered. Twist had gotten sloppy and when the local cops busted down his door, you were right at his feet playing with the same stuffed animal you’d had in your crib at home. Your dad vowed that night that you wouldn’t touch a blaster until you were old enough to understand what being a Shane meant. You’re caught up to the part where that didn’t work out.”

 

Katie stared at the beer bottle in her hand, processing the story. She didn’t remember any of it. Not Twist, not the kidnapping, nothing.

 

“What happened to Twist?”

 

“The next time your dad ran into Twist, he threatened to take you again, and your dad put a Geoshard spike straight through his ribcage. We’d put people in jail, we even sent a few people to the deep caverns, but that was the first time, and only time, your dad’s ever actually killed anyone. When I say it broke his heart to find out you were a merc, I mean it. He blamed himself for it, for everything from Twist taking you, to the mistakes he made that led you to that path. It’s why when I suggested that you go undercover, he decided that only he could. He wasn’t going to let you drag yourself or the Shane name through the wringer.”

 

Katie’s gaze shot up to her uncle, “you thought I could go undercover?”

 

Kord nodded, “you and your folks have been on alright terms, and I know you and your gang have the right heart. I might not agree with everything you kids do, but you’re not the hardened criminals your dad was afraid you’d turn out to be. You’re the guardian of the East after all, can’t get a name like that doing bad things.”

 

Katie shrugged, “I know there are things he doesn’t like about it, but… he really just thinks I’m some kind of merc? That I’d go native on him undercover?”

 

“Katie, you gotta understand, he’s paranoid. He knows you wouldn’t but after that first year, and the things he’s had on him the last few months, he’s got good reason to worry. I won’t say its right, but it’s not without its own warrants.”

 

She set her bottle down and took a deep breath before sitting back and pulling her ankle up to her knee, “alright, so ignoring my father’s opinion of me. What’s first? I’m gonna need new gear, probably have to repaint my ride, and the world is going to want to know what happened to the corrupted little baby from eighteen years ago.”

 

“That’s the good part, got your sizes from Nico, thought you might like a surprise,” Kord gestured to the garage, “brought some paint in your dad’s colors too. I can get at it once we’re done here unless you’d rather do it yourself.”

 

Katie hopped up, less excited than before, but Kord’s surprises were always fun.

 

In the garage, Helix and Leo were eyeing the new stars as Nico studied Katie’s mech.

 

“I dunno about the colors man, white is not her style,” he muttered.

 

“Then use the white as an accent and paint it blue. I like blue,” she elbowed him.

 

Nico grinned and turned to nod to Kord as he stepped through the small doorway.

 

“Alright, well, paint your mech how you like, this will do all the talking you need it too.”

 

Kord set a box down on the work bench.

As Katie slid the box open, she found the slipstream, her dad’s blaster since he was fifteen it was still the best model, with all the best updates.

 

“You’re kidding.”

 

“Straight from the man himself, said it was yours, sticks out too much, and speaking of yours, I hope you’ve got room in your arsenal.”

 

Kord held his hand out as Burpee jumped from a slugtube into his palm.

 

Nico glanced over, surprised as hell, “is that… an infurnus?”

 

Burpee grinned, and as Katie held out her hand, he hopped into it.

 

Now, the slug had almost always sided with her dad on things, but Burpee had been pretty good at listening and trying to nudge him to go easy on her as a kid.

 

“Long time no see, huh,” Katie gave him a half smile.

 

Burpee squeaked as Lumino popped out to say hello. While most slingers saw slugs come and go, Katie’d had Lumino since she found him in kindergarten, and after a lot of pleading, and a lot of pleading from Burpee, her dad let him stay. 

 

The little Phosphoro slug hugged Burpee tight, and Katie set them on the counter to have a reunion of their own before picking up the blaster.

 

“He didn’t take Burpee with him?”

 

“That would be a dead giveaway, and I think after all of this, your dad wanted Burpee to have your back.”

 

Katie nodded, then put the hip holster on her belt, “he doesn’t plan on coming back, does he?”

 

Kord frowned and eyed the mech as Leo handed Katie the original star badge.

 

“I don’t know kid. What I do know is that no matter what happens, you’re the one the caverns are looking up to right now. You don’t have to be a hero, you don’t even have to talk to people, just do what you’ve been doing all along and things will be alright in the end.”


End file.
